Archive for the ‘Political’ Category

The Second Amendment states “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” I’m not exactly sure why there is so much need for “interpretation” of this amendment as it seems pretty self explanatory. The first part speaks of having a military to protect the freedom and security of our country. The latter part clearly speaks of the right of the private citizen to keep a firearm. Why is the Second Amendment one of the only amendments that always needs interpretation?

With the above in mind, the Democratic Party tends to push a great deal towards achieving gun control through gun bans and stricter gun laws. For example, a bill was just voted against that would allow those citizens that were licensed to carry a concealed handgun to carry that handgun across state lines.

Why then is the issue of gun control so important to the government? Is it because of the high crime rate? Could it be another attempt for tighter control in general? Let us explore the issue of crime rate. Studies have been done that show gun control actually elevates the crime rate. On the other hand, reducing restrictions on private gun ownership tends to reduce crime. Take the United Kingdom for example, which has one of the most extreme gun control measures of all the Western countries and yet, has one of the highest violent crime rates. Even when in office, President Clinton’s extensive study on gun control could not provide conclusive evidence that his gun control measures reduced the overall crime rate in the United States.

So if it is not gun control laws, or the lack of for that matter, why is the crime rate high or considered high? Well, the term high is relative depending on who you are speaking to. Government tends to think the crime rate is high and that the high rate is caused by guns. Is that really why the rate is “high” or is there another reason? We must dig deeper and see where the rates are high culturally. By that I mean, we have to look at the United States population as a whole and then break it down into cultural groups as does the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. These two non-biased govenment groups break the population down into racial groups and analyze the crime rates in that manner. We will look at statistics momentarily.

President Obama promised during his campaign to pass stricter gun control laws. A great deal of Obama’s speeches, at least in my opinion, always in up talking about race and how the blacks are being unfairly treated. Take for instance, the recent arrest of Mr. Gates. While this was a mistake in identity, Obama blamed it on racial profiling. The point I’m trying to make is that while Obama speaks of racial inequalities quite often, he never speaks of how blacks commit the highest rates of violent (gun) crimes. He still blames the high crime rates on guns in general and not the cultural aspect of society. Now I’m not saying that whites or any other race does not commit crimes. I’m saying that it is statiscally proven that the blacks in America commit a higher number of violent crimes that any other race.

Now for the statistics. The Department of Justice reported that in 2005 blacks commited 53% of murders in the United States despite being only 12.1% of the total population while whites (including Latinos) only commited 42% which represent 75% of the population in the United States.

I really don’t think gun control is the answer to this situation. Criminals aren’t going to obtain guns through a legal avenue so how are gun laws and gun control going to affect them anyways? Gun control is only going to prevent legal citizens, collectors, hunters, etc. from obtaining firearms. How are we to protect ourselves. How are we to hunt and enjoy the outdoors if we don’t have access to guns? I have a four-year-old daughter and I would like the opportunity to teach her about guns and teach her to shoot when she is old enough. Here’s that famous saying: Guns don’t kill people; people kill people. And studies show, some ethnic backgrounds are more likely to kill than other backgrounds.

What is sickening is that people are charged with murder and sent to prison for protecting their family by shooting an intruder in their own home while someone that murders another person during a robbery may get prison time but can easily get out on parole. I can assure you, if I wake up to someone in my home in the middle of the night, I will definitely put to good use one of the 8 guns I have in my home. I’m pretty sure the Second Amendment guarantees me that right!

Last night I had the pleasure of phoning my bank for a rather senseless issue. Once I reached Customer Service, I was prompted to press 1 to continue the call in English. Let me begin by saying the bank that gets my business only operates in the states of Louisiana, Texas, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. My curiousity got the best of me at this point so I decided to hang up and begin the call again just to hear the other language choices. To my utter surprise, there was only one other choice. Can you guess what that language was? Spanish!

My first question is why should I have to even press 1 in a country where the predominant language is English? Question two, why should I have to press 1 when calling a company that does not even operate outside of the United States? And my third question, is it now a requirement that one must speak Spanish to obtain a job in a United States corporation – that ONLY operates in the United States?

According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website, a requirement to become a US citizen is to be able to read, write and speak English. Now, I know I just said a requirement to become a “citizen”, but isn’t that what’s important at this point? I know the United States is the “land of the free and the home of the brave” but are our soldiers fighting for the freedom of immigrants that are coming over here taking jobs away from our Americans, costing tax payers thousands of dollars at the borders and in general weakening the overall national security of the United States? I think these soldiers would greatly disagree if you asked them that same question!

So, if you are a United States citizen a) you were either born in this country or b) you received a green card. If you were born in this country, I assume you know English. If you became a citizen through the immigration and naturalization process, as I mentioned earlier, it is required that you learn to read, write and speak English. Therefore, why the need to press 1 for English? In my opinion, giving the choice to press 2 for Spanish is only inviting immigration. Do these large banks really think that these immigrants (legal or otherwise) that can speak very little or no English at all are really going to use banking services?

I think it is time we start taking care of our own people instead of trying to be politically correct and taking care of every person that comes to the United States! Press 1 for English? Give me a break! Made in America!